Moores Art Gallery & Design Blog: tutorial on drawing rocks

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Work In Progress, Color Pencil Tip of the Week and Resource of the Week

Hey everyone!
Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I have been so busy sorting, cleaning and packing to move to our new home, I haven't had a whole lot of time to draw. I have been trying to catch some drawing time in between all the packing. I was able to catch a couple of hours to participate in Ellen Millions Sketch Fest http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/sketchfest/index.php

The first, is an ACEO inspired by prompt "Snow White" done in Ebony and Derwent graphic pencil. The second is a sketch inspired by the prompt "The Violin Player". I didn't quite get this one done, I still have the background and hair to work on. This will be done in color pencil and part of my emotional/music series.

Work In Progress

So here is my latest work in progress. It's a landscape. It is going to be for a step by step demo on rocks. So I have started with the rocks first. Normally I would have started with the background first, but I needed to get the rocks done first to get the demo completed in time. All work is color pencil and watercolor pencil on watercolor paper.

Color Pencil Tip of the Week

Like the old masters, try building your composition first by using grays, complementary, or neutral colors then layer other colors on top of those layers. This technique is called Grisaille.

Colored pencil artist Arlene Steinberg has used this technique in some of her still life and floral works. It makes the colors rich and they intensify, as you can see in some of her works at her web site http://www.arlenesteinberg.com

Here is a thread over at Wet Canvas that explains the technique Arlene used and some useful tips and ideas https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/topic/grisaille-technique/